Hillary the Hardheaded Hawk

Birds of a feather …

W.J. Astore

In a lengthy article (April 21st) at the “liberal” New York Times, “How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk,” Hillary is variously described as “aggressive,” “tough,” a “military wonk” who’s “more muscular” than President Obama when it comes to advocating for the use of force. Noted for her “pugnacity” and “hardheadedness,” Hillary is praised for her close relationships with U.S. generals, to include David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal. Indeed, the article highlights the fact that Hillary is sometimes more aggressive in advocating for military force than the generals she confers with. Nevertheless, or rather because of this, the generals apparently like Hillary. They really like her!

What are we to make of this puff piece that praises Hillary the Hawk? Obviously, with Hillary’s victory in New York and her forthcoming, now nearly inevitable nomination as the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton and her allies have decided it’s time to sharpen her beak and claws. No more nonsense about being a touchy-feely progressive like Bernie Sanders. It’s time for Hillary the Hawk to take charge and soar, preempting any criticism by Republicans that she’ll be “weak” on defense.

But, tell me again, how did America’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and elsewhere go for the United States? At least three trillion dollars lost, tens of thousands of U.S. troops killed and wounded, hundreds of thousands of “foreigners” killed and wounded, millions made refugees, and for what, exactly?

Hillary the Hawk wants to double-down on a losing hand. That’s neither “aggressive” nor “tough”: It’s reckless and dumb. Worst of all, she’s playing with our chips as well as the lives of our troops, not to mention the lives of all those “foreigners” seeking shelter from American bombs and bullets and drones. (But we have a word for them: collateral damage.)

Hillary Clinton, like all of the remaining presidential candidates, never wore a military uniform. Her one child, Chelsea, married well and lives in a posh apartment (price: a cool $10.5 million) in New York City. Indeed, like most American politicians in Congress, Hillary is a millionaire without children in the military, therefore she risks little in advocating for more U.S. troops to be sent off to war. Her defenders (including Hillary herself) will say she will use force only as a last resort, yet the “Hillary Hawk” article cited above makes plain that she is no reluctant warrior. Hell, why not, when she earns such praise for her wonkish warrior posturing from the New York Times?

We could call You-Know-Her “Atilla the Hen,” but Margaret Thatcher already owns that one. You-Know-Her hasn’t even secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for President yet, but already she has begun her predictable lurch to the right which corporate, war-profiteering Democrats like to euphemistically call the “center.” Yes, fellow Crimestoppers, the betrayal of the working-class, anti-war base of the Democratic Party has already begun. Right on schedule. A black man flirted with the so-called “left” to win his nomination and election, then kept the war-profiteering going for eight years. Now a privileged white woman shows every sign of intending to do the same. Why not? In the United States, no penalty whatsoever attaches to getting war wrong over and over for decades. It simply pays too well, and until the day comes when it doesn’t pay, the world will just keep getting the chaos and misery that America has made its hysterical, not “historical” legacy.

Good One. Although I always liked Bawl and Pillory for that “two-for-the-price-of-one” thing that Ross Perot twice bequeathed to the American electorate. Who knows but that another fractured Republican Party may just put the androgynous Clinton Twin back in the White House again. Talk about transgender issues!

w j astore, We need an article from you on a need for a better “Recruiting” system for CEO of USA. How To Better HR CEO of USA? Someone with the leadership and moral character of the fictional character Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek. !! well done Hillary-hawk article… we’ll certainly vote for Hillary over any current republican with hat in circle… but with great trepidation and head held over toilet just in case the nausea in stomach rises. we had hoped Bernie would have done better.we sent him $30 twice Bernie lacks Hillary’s brains and international “experience” but he has a moral center around foreign intervention that is needed desperately (too bad it doesn’t extend into wiser gun control language.) new article: We need a good headhunting company (a smart experienced HR citizens group not wedded to either party) to ferret out really good candidates for CEO of the US. I am very very serious. The current “recruiting” system or the lack thereof really sucks. Another article building on your existing…How many Jihadists does the U.S. create every day?…. because of our despicable “Kafir” disregard for the lives we are disrupting and the Storm Trooper mentality perceived by all but Congress. How many Jihadists does the U.S. train and supply every day?…. (Are we still giving millions to Taliban not to bomb certain supply routes?) – a fan David King Keller, PhD david@kbdag.comApr 22, 2016 03:37:31 PM, comment+eqmo4nij09sljor0n2zumomi@comment.wordpress.com wrote:

wjastore posted: ” W.J. Astore In a lengthy article (April 21st) at the âliberalâ New York Times, âHow Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk,â Hillary is variously described as âaggressive,â âtough,â a âmilitary wonkâ whoâs âmore muscularâ than President Obama when it comes to a”

Yes. Self-promoting lies from You-Know-Her. Sort of like when we heard from the Obama administration that Osama Bin Laden hid behind his wives and used them as human shields while he shot it out with a troop of temendously brave Navy Seal goons sent to assassinate him as he sat unarmed at home watching television. Never any photos of the bullet riddled corpse, though. Nor any videos of the solemn, reverential Muslim burial at sea that we heard so much about. Just a constant parade of self-serving lies from officials of the U.S. government. They lie just to keep in practice; just so they won’t forget how. And the ones wearing military uniforms lie just as baldly and brazenly as the politicians who think — like our generals do — that killing innocent peasants makes them look “all tough and stuff” — to each other.

Yes, “performative masculinity” aptly describes the last several decades of U.S. policy — both domestically and internationally — at least since Ronald Raygun, but when the Amazons take over next year, with You-Know-Her clucking and glaring at the world from her chicken-henhouse in Washington, all the clipped-capon guys who have fouled things up so badly in recent decades will finally get to see how the ovarian hormones “get it done” so much better than the stuff American testicles would have secreted had the United States not neutered itself for no other reason than to make a mere handful of billionaires even wealthier. Anyway, call it “performative fantasy feminism” or “shield-maiden showtime,” whatever, but I sincerely doubt that the world will find “womanized” America either admirable or frightening in the least.